High School Field Hockey: Pennsylvania may re-examine whether boys can play with girls

by Jeff Fisher
Host, NHSCA Sports Hour
Follow @NHSCARadioShow

In 1975, the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) was ordered by the courts to allow girls to be able to participate in football.  That ruling also affected other sports like wrestling and field hockey.

According to a story on Philly.com by Chris Palmer, 38 schools have reported that they have boys playing on girls' high school field hockey teams.  The story also states that a PIAA survey found that more than 100 schools allowed girls to play on their high school football teams and 112 schools had girls on Pennsylvania high school wrestling teams.

Earlier this year, the PIAA partnered with a couple from Pittsburgh on a lawsuit asking that western Pennsylvania judge Kevin Brobson overturn the '75 ruling because of competitive imbalance in field hockey matches.  Judge Brobson declined to get involved, but told the PIAA that if it wanted to stop boys from playing field hockey, it needed to create a policy stating that.

Now the ball is in the PIAA's court.  According to Palmer's story, lawyers are expected to discuss the organization's next steps with its board members sometime soon.